A unique blog dedicated to covering the worlds of book publishing and the news media, revealing creative ideas, practical strategies, interesting stories, and provocative opinions. Along the way, discover savvy but entertaining insights on book marketing, public relations, branding, and advertising from a veteran of two decades in the industry of book publishing publicity and marketing.

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Friday, July 24, 2015

Ruminate On These Four Books

You
would think after a day of working with authors and publishers, to promote and
market their books, that I would want to do anything but continue to read,
write, and think about books. But I love
books and live for the written word. My
curiosity is insatiable. So where do I
gravitate to? The bookstore, of course.

One
night this past week, I let my eyes wander across the fully stacked tables and
shelves of featured books at a super, super store, the Union Square Barnes
& Noble. Four books captured my attention. Well, really, dozens did, but these four are
the ones I want to highlight:

Physics
of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the
Year 2100. It has a lot of
potential. The book is a bestseller,
written by Michio Kaku, a renowned theoretical physicist. The back cover says it all: “Kaku forecasts a
century of earthshaking advances in technology that could make even the last
centuries leaps and bounds seem insignificant.”

Another
book that looks brilliant is Who Owns The Future?, by Jaron Lanier, the father
of virtual reality. The back cover copy
is illuminating: “Lanier has predicted how technology will transform our
humanity for decades, and his insight has never been more urgently needed. He
shows how Siren Servers, which exploit big data and the free sharing of
information, led our economy into recession, imperiled personal privacy, and
hollowed out the middle class. The networks that define our world—including
social media, financial institutions, and intelligence agencies—now threaten to
destroy it.

“But there is an alternative. In this provocative, poetic, and deeply humane
book, Lanier charts a path toward a brighter future: an information economy
that rewards ordinary people for what they do and share on the web.”

Another
book that looks engrossing is called The Fuck-Up, a novel by Arthur
Nersesian. The provocative title draws
you in. The book cover says the book is
an “underground literary treasure and an unforgettable slice of gritty New York
City life...and the darkly hilarious odyssey of an anonymous slacker. He's a
perennial couch-surfer, an aspiring writer searching for himself in spite of
himself, and he's just trying to survive.”

The last
of the final four to stir excitement in me is Assholes: A Theory, a bestseller
by Aaron James.

I
imagine the author knows a lot firsthand about being an ass, but it is hard to
ignore such a witty book. The back cover
copy does a good job of sucking you in:

“What
does it mean for someone to be an asshole? The answer is not obvious, despite
the fact that we are often stuck dealing with people for whom there is no
better name. We try to avoid them, but assholes are everywhere—at work, at
home, on the road, in the public sphere—and we struggle to comprehend why exactly
someone should be acting like that.

“Asshole management begins with asshole understanding. Finally giving us the
concepts to discern why assholes disturb us so, philosopher Aaron James
presents a provocative theory of the asshole to explain why such people exist,
especially in an age of raging narcissism and unbridled capitalism. We get a
better sense of when the asshole is best resisted and best ignored—a better
sense of what is, and what is not, worth fighting for.”

Why did
I gravitate towards these books? Well,
though I can appreciate all kinds of books, from poetry and children’s picture
board books to fiction and short story collections, I am partial to
nonfiction books that make me pause and think and question. Or make me laugh.

The very
act of surveying the bookstore’s offering is enjoyable and purposeful, but once
I found the books that I wanted to explore further, my research went
deeper. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish
any of the books. There just isn’t
enough time in the day! But I like to
know such books existed. I was comforted to know they hold promise. Reading them wouldn’t be as much fun or as
rewarding as contemplating how good such books have the chance to be.

The art
of browsing books is probably similar to shopaholics who like to try on items
they can’t afford to buy. They get a
momentary satisfaction by envisioning how something would fit them – and then
move on to the next thing. I like to
escape in knowing there are many paths my mind could travel down, even if I take
none of them.

I love
books and going to bookstores. Even at
the end of a full day where all I do is think about, talk about, and read
books, the visit to a bookstore makes for a delicious sunrise of the mind.

About Me

Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, is the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect (www.Media-Connect.com), formerly Planned Television Arts, and has been involved in book publicity and marketing since 1989. He has served several book publishing companies as a publicist, book editor, and acquisitions editor. Brian, who earned a BA in English from Brooklyn College, became a published author in 1995 when he penned The Florida Homeowner, Condo and Co-Op Handbook. He resides in Westchester, New York with his wife, two young children, and an English Bulldog.